Personally Procured Move

Since this month's topic is moving I'm going to cover the personally procured move (PPM) or what was once known as the do it yourself move (DITY move). My wife Shevaun asked me to write this post since I handled most of our move.

Unlike the full government move that was covered earlier in the month, where the government takes care of pretty much everything, with a PPM you take care of everything. While it is a lot of work to move yourself, the nice thing about this type of move is that you have full control of everything.

Before you start work on your PPM make sure to visit the personal property office on your base so that you can get the paperwork started.

Here are a few things to consider:

Money

The government will give you 95% of what they would have paid a professional moving company to do your move. So one of the incentives of a PPM is that you can potentially make a profit on the move if your payment is more than the cost of the boxes, packing supplies, moving van and gasoline. The one downside is that the government will take out taxes on that profit before they pay it to you.

Before you move you can get an advance on the amount of the move to help pay for all the expenses you are about to incur. The advance is limited to 60% of your move and is based upon an estimate of the total weight you are going to move. One of the big mistakes people make when doing a PPM is overestimating the weight that will be moved so that they can get a big advance. This can lead to problems if you have less weight than you estimated. In my experience it is best to low-ball your estimate so that you don't end up owing the government because you overestimated. The advance is really nice though especially if you move across the country like we just did. Our truck alone was $1500.

For an estimate of how much the government will pay you for your move you can visit http://pptas.ahf.nmci.navy.mil/

Packing

This is by far the hardest part of the move. First, getting all the boxes and other packing supplies can be more expensive than you might think and will really cut into any profits you thought you were going to make. Second, the actual packing part is a real pain. You will want to make sure that you pack everything really well, especially anything that is breakable, because since you packed it yourself the government isn't going to give you any insurance on the things that break during the move.

When we moved we knew a month in advance that we were going to move ourselves. We started slowly by packing up all the non-essential things a few weeks before the move, luckily we had a garage to put the boxes in. Then as the move date got closer we packed up the rest of our stuff. A few days before the move we were basically living out of suitcases and eating off of paper plates so we could have everything packed up and ready to be moved into the truck the day we picked it up. Which brings me to my next point.

The Truck

There are many companies that rent trucks for PPM's, and even some companies that will drop a trailer off at your place for you to pack up then they will drive it across the country for you. In my experience driving your own truck is the cheapest. I checked out U-Haul, Ryder, Budget, Penske, and ABF. Some of the companies offer big discounts to AAA members. If you aren't a AAA member it may be a good option to become a member before the move. The discount was so big. You'll want to price out as many options as possible to make sure you are getting the best deal possible.

On the day of the move I went to pick up the truck and they offered me several different options for insurance. Unlike renting a car when you travel, your credit card or personal auto insurance probably won't cover any accidents you may have while driving a moving truck. The types of insurance ranged from insurance on the truck itself in case of an accident to insurance that covered all the stuff in the back of the truck in case something broke during the move (this type is really expensive).

Loading/Unloading

When I got home with the truck we started moving everything we had already packed up into the truck. Because we had friends in the area we asked them to come help us out and it really didn't take that long since we had everything ready to go.

When we got to our destination to unload the truck, we didn't know anyone so we found some moving helpers on https://www.movinghelp.com/. I recommend this website to find helpers if you need it, especially for the big furniture. Like packing the truck, moving the boxes and furniture into the new apartment only took a few hours.

The Drive

Driving across the country in a giant moving van can be quite tricky, especially if you end up towing your car and/or driving in the winter like we did. You really have to be careful about where you stop and what hotels you stay in because the truck is hard to maneuver in small parking lots. We planned the whole trip out before we went and got hotels in the areas we wanted to stay in on www.priceline.com. Since we didn't care what part of the city we would be staying in we used the name your own price option and got some really great rates on 3 star hotels every night.

Another thing to consider is that you'll probably drive a little slower than the speed limit in that big truck, so you'll do less miles than you think. Make sure to think about when you plan your trip or you'll be driving more hours per day than you thought you would.

These big trucks also use a lot of gas and have big tanks, and depending on the type of gas station you stop at you may spend 15 minutes filling the truck up. We had a diesel truck and found that the best option was to stop at the big truck stops and fill the truck in the same lanes as the semi trucks. The pumps in these lanes typically filled the tank a lot faster than the regular pumps and we didn't have to worry about turning the truck around in the parking lot.

Weighing your goods

As part of a PPM you have to get official weight tickets of empty and full vehicles. It doesn't matter if you weigh the truck before you leave or at your destination or once in either place, you just need to get official weights. CAT scales area located all over the country and you can find the one nearest you at http://catscale.findlocation.com/ You can also get tickets at the weigh stations along the freeway or some moving companies will let you use their scales too. Scales usually cost between $5 and $10 per weigh.

Finally Getting Paid

One of the reasons that I suggest getting an advance on your PPM is because it takes a long time to finally get paid. In the Navy at least it is taking approximately 13 weeks for payments to be processed right now. When I went tot he household goods office on base they gave me a stack of paperwork and an addressed envelope with where to send everything once you arrive at your destination. Simply make sure everything is filled out correctly, put it in the envelope, put a stamp on it and send it out. I recommend taking your paperwork by the household goods office at your new base to make sure that everything was filled out correctly before sending it in.

Conclusion

While it is nice to be completely in control of your move and you can make you a little money in the end, it is a lot of work for the little bit of money you may make. You'll want to weigh the pros and cons for your specific situation before you decide to do a PPM, but I can attest that moving is much easier if you simply let the government take care of everything for you.